Method of mounting upholstery supports



Aug". 26, 1969 Original Filed March 28, 1966 c; DAMIANOV 3,462,824

METHOD OF MOUNTING UPHOLSTERY SUPPORTS 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 nvvE/vrog HMLas :DflMiA-A/o ATTORNEYS Aug. 26, 1 969 c. DAMIANO 3,

METHOD OF MOUNTING UPHOLSTERY SUPPORTS Original Filed March 28, 1966 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Q E I CHM I Arrow/5x91 Aug. 26; 1969 C; DAMIANO 2 METHOD OF mouu'rine UPHOLSTERY SUPPORTS Original Filed March 28, 1966 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR Cmmuas DpM/AA/o v BY ATTORNEYS Aug. 26, 1969 c. DAMIANO 3,462,824

I METHOD OF MOUNTING UPHOLSTERY SUPPORTS Original Filed Mar-ch28. 1966 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTOR CHARLES iDRHi/H/O United States Patent US. Cl. 29-448 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An upholstery support and the method of assembly wherein adjacent frame elements of an article of furniture have axially aligned passageways therein, a rod the ends of which extend into each of the passageways and the support having means associated therewith to engage the rods and connect the support to and within the frame under tension.

This application is a division of my application, Ser. No. 537,846, filed Mar. 28, 1966, now Patent No. 3,333,841.

This invention is for improvements in or relating to articles of furniture which include upholstery supports and to a method of mounting such supports upon said articles so as to be readily removable.

Upholstery supports which are manufactured in the form of sheets or platforms have become well known articles of commerce and the uses of them are becoming more widespread. In the furniture industry (and this is used in its more colloquial sense to indicate the industry which makes chairs, tables, beds and the like as well as in the wider sense which embraces the industry which makes furniture for use in land, sea and air vehicles) there is a requirement for the upholstery support to have four points at which said support can be removably attached to the seat frame for example.

There are numerous ways of doing this. However, any means of attachment must be cheap, easy to incorporate in a seat frame or in a frame of any other article of furniture and/or in an upholstery support and must also be such as will make the upholstery support simple for those to handle who have to assemble furniture, for example seats.

The object of the present invention is to provide an upholstery support which is adapted to be removably attached to the frame of an article of furniture at a number of points which may be four in number or more or less than four in number and which support will be an efiicient and economic alternative to those upholstery supports which already exist.

Accordingly, from a first aspect, the present invention consists in an article of furniture which includes two frame elements in each of which there is formed a passageway, said passageways being in axial alignment with one another and being adapted to accommodate end portions of a length of rod or wire of which a central or intermediate portion is exposed for the purpose of providing an anchorage for an upholstery support.

Preferably, said frame elements are separately made (from wood for example) and are securely joined to one another (for example with a glue). Alternatively. said frame elements are integral with and are not readily separable one from another (for example two portions of a length of metal tubing as used for seat frames in the motor vehicle industry).

From a second aspect, the present invention consists in a method of mounting an upholstery support upon an article of furniture, which method includes the following steps, namely, forming passageways in frame elements of an article of furniture; inserting a length of rod or wire in two axially aligned passageways in such a manner as to accommodate one end portion of said rod or wire in each passageway and as to leave a central or intermediate portion exposed for the purpose of providing an anchorage for an upholstery support.

In a preferred embodiment said passageways are formed in frame elements which are integral with and are not readily separable from one another.

In an alternative embodiment, said passageways are formed in frame elements which are separate from one another, said frame elements being thereafter brought together to form a frame or a part of a frame.

In a further alternative embodiment said passageways are formed in frame elements which are made separately and are joined securely to one another before the passageways are formed therein.

The present invention will now be more particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 illustrates in plan one corner of a seat frame upon which an upholstery support has been mounted, in accordance with the present invention;

FIGURE 2 illustrates a section on the line IIII in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 illustrates in plan one corner of a seat frame upon which an upholstery support has been mounted, in accordance with an alternative embodiment of the present invention;

FIGURE 4 illustrates a section on the line IV-IV in FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 5 illustrates in plan one corner of a seat frame upon which an upholstery support has been mounted, in accordance with another alternative embodiment of the present invention;

FIGURE 6 illustrates a section on the line VIVI in FIGURE 5;

FIGURE 7 illustrates in plan one corner of a seat frame upon which an upholstery support has been mounted, in accordance with a further alternative embodiment of the present invention; and

FIGURE 8 illustrates one advantage obtainable from the employment of at least the embodiments of FIG- URES 3 to 6.

Referring to FIGURES 1 and 2, there are illustrated two frame elements A of a seat frame of an article of furniture. According to the preferred embodiment, when the frame has been built, said frame elements are drill d at an angle of 45 in such a manner as to provide a passageway G in each frame element A, the passageways G being axially aligned with each other. A length B of rod or wire, which is a drive fit in the passageways, is driven in and the end F of one of the passageways is then filled up, for example with plastic wood. Said end F need not, of course, be filled up if the article of furniture is to be fully upholstered. Thus disposed, end portions of the length B of rod or wire are accommodated within the two axially aligned passageways G and a central or intermediate portion of said length B is left exposed for the purpose of providing an anchorage for a platform or upholstery support E. The platform or support E is preferably provided at each of four corners with a corner clip D incorporated in said support E during moulding and vulcanisation or cure of the elastomeric material from which said support E is formed. A loose hook C is provided for the attachment of each corner clip D to the central or intermediate portion of the respective length B of rod or wire, each clip D being formed with an arcuate locating portion K for the purpose referred to hereinafter. It will be seen from FIGURE 2 that a single plane contains the centres of all sections of the clip D and of the length B of rod or wire.

The angle of drilling may be varied but it is thought that 45 is the best angle since the stresses are equally spread when the platform is under load. Also, the drilling could be done before the frame members A are put together and, moreover, all passageways could extend right through the respective frame members thereby necessitating plugging (as indicated at F in the drawing) at each end of each length B of rod or wire. Such plugging will serve not only an aesthetic purpose but also the practical purpose of acting as a detent preventing disengagement by one end of the rod or Wire of the relevant passageway.

In the case where the frame elements A form parts of a one-piece tubular metal frame, it will obviously not be necessary or possible to plug one end of either passageway G with plastic wood. It might, however, be desirable in some manner to prevent the length B of rod or wire sliding in the direction of its longitudinal axis. For example by deforming the tube at the position indicated by the reference letter H. This could be done by placing a centre punch at that position and striking the punch with a hammer, thereby deforming the tube radially inwardly.

Referring to FIGURES 3 and 4, the upholstery support E is provided at each of the four corners thereof with a corner clip L which, in plan, is approximately triangular. The base M of the triangle makes an angle of about 43 with. each of the sides N and each side N terminates in a portion P which extends in a direction which is normal or substantially normal to the base M and which is also formed at its free end in a hook Q. The two portions P and hooks Q lie adjacent one another, possibly being in contact with one another. Further, it will be seen from FIGURE 4 that a single plane contains the centres of all sections of the base M, of the two sides N and of the length B of rod or wire, a second plane containing the centres of all sections of the portions P being inclined with respect to said single plane.

Referring to FIGURES 5 and 6, the upholstery support E is provided at each of the four corners thereof with a corner clip R which (as with the corner clip L of FIG- URES 3 and 4) is approximately triangular in plan configuration and has a base S, sides T, portions V and hooks W. The base S makes an angle of about 43 with each side T and other similarities will be apparent from a comparison of FIGURES 5 and 6 with FIGURES 3 and 4. Unlike the embodiment of FIGURES 3 and 4, however, only the centres of all sections of the base S and of the length B of rod or wire are contained in a single plane, and a second plane containing the centres of all sections of the sides T and portions V is inclined with respect to said single plane.

Referring to FIGURE 7, it will be appreciated that the upholstery support E could be provided with a much simplified corner clip X, the hooks of which are formed at the ends of arms Y and Z which are approximately parallel to one another.

Referring to the drawings generally, all of the embodiments are such that, in use, there is not any relative movement between that part of the corner clip which is embedded in or bonded to the elastomeric material of which the support E is made on the one hand and the said elastomeric material which surrounds said part on the other hand. All of the corner clips illustrated function satisfactorily from this standpoint, deflection of the central part of the upholstery support E downwardly under load causing the corner clips to rotate bodily about the longitudinal axis of the length B of rod or wire. Thus, friction will not develop between the corner clips shown in FIGURES 1 to 7 and the elastomer in which the clips are embedded or to which the clips are bonded. Friction is developed only between metal parts, namely, between the various lengths B of rod or wire and the hooks in 4 FIGURES 3 to 7 or, in FIGURES 1 and 2, between the various lengths B of rod or wire and the various corner clips D on the one hand and the interconnecting hooks C on the other hand.

Further, the employment of the various lengths B of rod or wire will strengthen a wooden frame for which the present invention has primarily been made, although it can also be employed on frames of tubular metal. In a wooden frame, the provision of the lengths B of rod or wire could well make it unnecessary to have a wooden gusset at each corner and also the parts of the frame would be pulled together not only when the upholstery support E is supporting a load but even when said support E is supporting a load but even when said support is unloaded because it must be remembered that the support is mounted under tension on the frame.

Another advantage stemming from the present invention is that only a simple jig drilling operation is required to provide the hole for each length B of rod or wire.

A further advantage obtainable from the employment of the embodiment of FIGURES 3 to 6 is diagrammatically illustrated in FIGURE 8 in which the chain lines AA depict the upholstery outline. The upholstery could be provided with so-called lips extending horizontally inwardly towards the centre of the upholstery support E, saiid lips being such as will ride over the edges of the support E and corner clips and thereafter either engage the under-surfaces thereof or be such as to engage the under-surfaces thereof as a result of movement of th upholstery. The chain line triangle BB is intended to depict a preformed boss on the upholstery which can either serve merely as a locating device or (if suitable made with so-called lips) as a combined locating and anchoring device. The so-called lips, with or without the triangular locating devices or triangular locating/anchoring devices, will mean that the upholstery is not only easily detachable for cleaning or the like but also held on the upholstery support itself.

Obviously, the embodiments of FIGURES 3 to 6 are such as to make use of this advantage with ease, but the other embodiments can also make use of the advantage to a greater or less extent.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A method of mounting an upholstery support under tension within a frame of an article of furniture, which method includes the following steps, namely, forming passageways in frame elements of a frame of an article of furniture; inserting a straight length of rod in each of a plurality of pairs of spaced axially aligned passageways in adjacent frame elements in such a manner as to accommodate one end portion of said rod in each passageway and as to leave an intermediate portion of said rod to provide an anchorage for an upholstery support; placing in a predetermined position within said frame elements an elastomeric upholstery support which has a number of integral clip elements; applying tension to said upholstery support; and connecting said clip elements to said exposed intermediate portions of said lengths of rod.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said passageways are formed in frame elements which are integral with and are not readily separable from one another.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said passageways are formed in frame elements which are separate from one another, said frame elements being thereafter brought together to form a frame or a part of a frame.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said passageways are formed in frame elements which are made separately and are joined securely to one another before the passageways are formed therein.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1, which includes the further step of providing at least one detent means at one end of said rod or wire to prevent such an amount of axial displacement of said rod or Wire as would result in disengagement thereby of one of said passageways.

6. A method of locating upholstery upon an upholstery support which has been mounted upon an article of furniture in accordance with the method claimed in claim 1, said method including the steps of forming at least one lip around a free edge or edges of a part of said upholstery; placing said upholstery upon said upholstery support; and causing said lip to become so positioned beneath said upholstery support that movement of any portion of the upholstery in any direction away from said upholstery support will result in at least a part of said lip making contact with said upholstery support, thereby preventing or retarding said movement.

7. A method as claimed in claim 6, which includes the further step of forming upon said upholstery a number of bosses which is equal to the number of integral clip elements with which said upholstery support is provided; said bosses being caused to become so positioned with re- 6 spect to said upholstery support and said corner clips that said upholstery is positively located thereby on said support and is positively anchored to said support and corner clips.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,179,469 4/1965 Heuston 160-382 3,217,786 11/1965 Eart 160-404 FOREIGN PATENTS 467,104 6/ 1937 Great Britain. 800,828 9/ 1958 Great Britain. 887,926 1/ 1962 Great Britain. 489,217 1/ 1930 Germany.

CHARLIE T. MOON, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 29469, 526 

